My father is a veteran of WWII and I am trying to find out information and get a feel for what he experienced as an engineer, so even if I can't find a great deal of information about his specific unit, I hope to find our more about engineering units through the information posted here.

My father served with the 608 Engineer (LE) Co., which I only recently found out was redesignated at the 455 Engineer Co. after WWII.

My father was discharged in December 1945 and went home and then enlisted in the USAF in December 1947 and served with the Atlas Missile Program. I was born on Fairchild Air Force Base - we were raised with a great sense of respect for our military and a great patriotism. But like many men of my fathers generation and ilk, he did not talk about his war experiences when I was younger. Now he will to a certain degree, we are trying to make up for lost time. About all I know is that he served with the 608th, we even have documents that bear that out, he was Omaha Beach on D-Day and he worked with Patton (not on a one-on-one basis but he was part of a crew that cleared the path that Patton wanted to go). His military records were apparently destroyed in a fire in 1973.

I look forward to reading the other posts. And a personal thanks to all of you who have served our country. I am grateful.

Clementine

Hello Clementine, welcome to the forum and a Thank You to your dad for his service.

A typical Engineer Light Equipment Company consisted of 4 officers. 114 enlisted men.

They furnished supplementary equipment with operators to engineer combat battalions and operated as a replacement pool for construction equipment. Light equipment companies were attached to corps or army.

AmericanDivisions.com lists the 608th Engineer Light Equipment Co. under Army Engineer Troops for the Normandy invasion attached to the 1128th Engineer Combat Group along with the 1278th Engineer Combat Battalion.

The operation plans state that the 1109th and 1128th ECGroups will do general engineer work in the Carentan Peninsula area.

Later records of the 1128th Group do not list the 608th as being attached to them, so they probably went to Patton`s 3rd Army when it was activated in August `44.

I`ll try to find some record of them under 3rd Army later.

The 608thLECo has campaign credits for Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes- Alsace, Central Europe, Rhineland, and Occupation Duty, 2 May - 4 July 1945, Germany.

Welcome Clementine. Larry, thank you for getting him off to a good start. Let's see what we can come up with.

Larry,

Thanks so much for the information....It is very much appreciated.

And I will tell my father. I am so very blessed to have him with me still. He will celebrate his 90th birthday in March.

He's great on the larger aspects of his war experiences - for example, he tells of finding a chimpanzee and taking it along with him and some of the trouble the monkey would get into (they called the monkey Adolph), my father wanted to bring him home with him, but could not, of course - but some of the finer details he can't remember. But I am wondering now if it isn't just as much the nomadic nature of being part of a light equipment company, being sent here and there amongst the different units.

Look forward to seeing you around the site.

Thanks again. And thank you for the welcome, Marion!

Clementine

Marion -

I stumbled on some information on another site that helps me wrap my head around some of this - and it just happens to have been written by you.

It is on the Daughters of D-Day site and the specific piece I got excited about was:

"All along I assumed that each unit fell under a division, but I soon discovered that many engineer units were known in army lingo as "bastard" units; they were individualized engineer regiments or battalions that went where and when they were needed. Sometimes under an Army, sometimes under a Corps, and often times attached to other divisional units."

The descriptions of an engineering unit I had been given said they were attached to an army or a corps, and I think that was probably implied in that description, but I just wasn't sure if that meant they were directly attached or if they still belonged to a division or what. I needed it spelled out. And I couldn't understand why my father couldn't remember what division he was with, yet he remembered he was with the 608th. But this makes sense to me if he was part of one of the "bastard" units.

Wow...It probably seems like such a little thing, but I think you will understand how excited that makes me.

And - I love the photo of you and your father. It's priceless.

Clementine

(I noticed you have this article at this site as well - I just hadn't gotten to it yet.)

Clementine:

I can share your enthusiasm. Oh yes!

Well I'm glad you stumbled upon my article, and certainly delighted it helped to clear up a lot of the confusion surrounding your father's service with an engineering company.

This is certainly why your father couldn't remember what division he was in, because he never was! These engineer units simply went where they were needed, and oft times attached to regiments/divisions for a short period of time. So yes, his unit was a "bastard" unit.

I'm here to assist you and your father, and now after all this time, you can finally start to put those puzzle pieces together.

A big hello to your father, from a very proud daughter. Engineer's rock!

They do, indeed! They rock!

And so do you!

And from one proud daughter to another, I will tell my father hello for you!

Clem

Hi Clemetine, You probly already know this, but here is a great article on your father being honored recently at the IL House of Representatives. It gives an account of his service.

Area vets recognized in Ill. House

http://jg-tc.com/news/article_f4e1fe76-033d-11e0-9d91-001cc4c03286.html

GREAT! Nice to have that here. Good job Larry, as usual!

Found this short bio of Mr Cloyd`s career in the Air Force missle program on a Google Books preview of the book :

"Air Force Missileers By Turner Publishing Company" page 84.

Air Force Missileers By Turner Publishing Company